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Rising Voices will serve as the third arm of Global Voices’ triad of amplifying independent voices worldwide, advocating for their right to free speech, and providing universal access to citizen media tools as is described in our founding manifesto. To better understand how our focus has evolved from mere aggregation of worldwide blog content to this new pro-active initiative of spreading social media tools to underrepresented populations, it is worth looking back to 2004 when the Global Voices Manifesto was first drafted and at how far we've come since.

In December of 2004 – still before the explosion of weblogs and podcasts that have now become unavoidable parts of our daily lives – Global Voices co-founders Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon invited bloggers from around the world to convene in Cambridge, Massachusetts for the second day of the Berkman Center's Conference on Internet and Society. These blogging pioneers from Malaysia, China, Iraq, and beyond agreed that we were witnessing the dawn of a new era of communication in which individuals around the world were finally able to take advantage of the decentralized web thanks to the availability of self-publishing tools like blogs and podcasts, which radically transformed every computer into its own printing press and radio station.

This post isn't meant to perpetuate the idealism that dominates the rhetoric around citizen media; just the opposite. However, it's still worth looking back over Global Voices’ first two years and recalling some of the stories and conversations that exemplify what happens when ordinary citizens are given the power to make their voices heard, to tell their own stories.

There is no doubt that the widespread enthusiasm for sharing local stories with global readers which defines Global Voices is a step closer toward a world that favors dialogue and understanding over ignorance and brute force.

But these past two years have also taught us that certain regions of the world and certain demographics within those regions have benefited from the boom in citizen media more than others. Most bloggers and podcasters still tend to be middle or upper-middle class. Most have a college-level education. Most live in large cities. And of the 70 million weblogs now tracked by Technorati, 95% of them are written in just 10 languages. The truth is, what we often call the ‘global conversation,’ is a privileged discussion among global elites.

We are currently developing a curriculum of multilingual, how-to learning modules which will assist workshop leaders and citizen media evangelists who want to explain to friends and peers how to start blogging, podcasting, and video-blogging.

We will also soon be announcing the first round of microgrants for innovative project proposals that extend the reach of citizen media to communities that are otherwise unlikely to come into contact with new media tools like blogging and podcasting. Stay tuned for more information about how to apply for a grant and please feel free to write in with any concerns, comments, or suggestions at outreach@globalvoicesonline.org.

Rising Voices’ charter is both idealistic and pragmatic, and thus stands every chance of succeeding. It is not important that (presently) the Podcast/Blogsphere is the domain of “elites” – this is changing. We must remember that every great innovation in history (at least what we know from those boring Western Civ classes!) went through similar stages:

Look at the internet circa 1995 – a mesh of non-user friendly, confusing protocols and glib promises; relatively expensive access; providers coming and going; the unfulfilled promise of seamless eCommerce, etc. Yet now we are closing in on 2 billion worldwide users…

similar chaos defined the early TV and Radio media, and I’m sure that Gutenberg’s printing press wreaked all kinds of havoc in the social order of Europe – but nonetheless was a key contributor in leading Medieval Europe into a (relatively) more “enlightened age” – never mind that literacy rates were in single digits then; a growing merchant/ skilled class soon proliferated the print medium and education levels gradually climbed…

Rising Voices’ tandem mission – a multilingual, “how-to” curriculum that’s judiciously accompanied by targeted micro-grants – can indeed go a long way towards that halycon goal of putting a printing press and broadcast booth in Everyman’s (and Everywoman’s) home, office, or hut. The sheer implication of the mission is so liberating for the common masses that it dwarfs all the hiccoughs, confusion, and market chaos (from providers, vendors, users, etc.) that will accompany it.

This is – will be – the New World; one fueled by what I call “Trans-cultural Connection.” A world where leaders are held responsible for duplicitious comments or irresponsible acts; a world where success stories (or solutions, cures, joy) can be promulgated; a world where ideas can be leveraged and amplified, and in some cases resources can be tapped into to enrich and embolden individuals and their respective institutions. If along the way we get flooded with sideshows about Britney’s latest haircut or the caviar-quirks of Kim Jong-Il, then so be it; we have the same response mechanism as with the TV – just “flip channels”.

Too-Much-Information? Perhaps.. but would we rather have Not-Enough-Information? That’s only served the powers-that-be historically…just like before the printing press… or the Internet…